Pβid∅ ╙ SΘ has always been well positioned to talk about Kerry football. He has seen the county's best players come and go, has won and lost big games in Croke Park, and carried off the biggest prize of all. And that's as both player and manager.

Talk to him about playing Meath and you find he is particularly well positioned. In 1986, the last time the two sides met in the championship, ╙ SΘ was still playing, and lined out at corner back as Kerry stole into the All-Ireland final, 2-13 to 0-12. Subsequent periods of highs and lows in both counties have ensured their paths remained separate - until Sunday.

So to a novel and eagerly-awaited meeting, and the unbeaten summer streak that has given this semi-final the more cutting edge. Croke Park will be a sell-out.

Yet the hype in Kerry rarely hits full flight until the third Sunday in September. ╙ SΘ put his team through some open practice last weekend before a small media presence. ╙ SΘ got on with his job and didn't seem bothered.

"Well, you're certainly under no illusions about what you are facing when you play Meath," he said. "You know you are facing a team of battlers, of footballers, of experienced operators. And a team that knows Croke Park like the back of their hand because it's been like their home patch for so long.

"And from a manager's point of view, they have everything you look for in an opposition. Whatever it is you expect, you know the Meath players will have it. So we just know that we will have to be at the top of our game. We'll have to be really tuned in on the day."

There's little purpose in using the last meeting as a reference point, and ╙ SΘ doesn't dwell on his recollections of that day. Meath were appearing in their first semi-final since 1970.

"I do remember it was my last championship campaign and we won the All-Ireland that year. So, hopefully, it might work out like that again."

It was to be their eighth All-Ireland title in 12 seasons. Though Meath have won twice as many All-Irelands in the period since, neutrals now see little between the sides, the championship winners of the last two years. That's not to say this Kerry team aren't still learning. ╙ SΘ may have been satisfied with their overall performance in the two games against Dublin, but there were still problems. Dublin's scoring threat with runs through the middle was one example.

"Yeah, they did get a share of scores through the middle, but there's always plenty of room for improvement, and certainly we can't afford that kind of rope with the Meath lads."

Sunday will see two sides blessed with natural forwards, accurate from play and place-kicks, sides with a reputation of being hard to beat.

"Well, we'd like to think that we've always had the reputation that we are hard to beat. And I do feel this year more than any other year that this team has matured considerably. A lot of players have been in the senior ranks quite some time and are just at the age where maturity is a big factor, and where a lot of them can become leaders on the field.

"More than anything else I felt that this year it is one area that has been different. Normally you would be looking towards SΘamus Moynihan or Maurice Fitzgerald or other players like that. This year we have way more players who all of a sudden have become leaders."

Although the starting 15 has been settled for most of the season, ╙ SΘ, like most managers, has found himself looking more at the entire panel: "I think there has always been competition for places and competition for the panel in Kerry, and that's the great thing about it.

"But I also think that players are resigned to the fact now that it is no longer a 15-man team, and that there is a big emphasis on fresh legs, fresh bodies and fresh men on the field, especially with the intensity of games, and how fast they are played over 70 minutes, and the amount of extra time that is played so that you might have another five or six minutes on that.

"Players now are looking at the bigger picture, so from that point of view it is much easier to keep them focused and tuned in."

Part of that tuning involves keeping the team from crossing the line between confidence and over-confidence. Fear and respect are important in this regard.

"Well, we do fear all teams, whoever we take the field with. When we're talking about fear I mean respect, and I would be disappointed if that quality wasn't in our players. We give respect to them, then we go on and try and do the business.

"But this year has been great. The training has been absolutely fantastic, and with the amount of jostling that there is for positions on the team at the moment, an awful lot of the football that we play in training is very competitive.

"We had a lovely challenge match last Thursday night, a full scale 70 minutes, and we were delighted that everybody came through in that it was played in a very competitive fashion."

The only obvious worry that ╙ SΘ has for Sunday is the loss of defender Tomβs ╙ SΘ, who was sent off in the replay with Dublin. It forces him to make a rare alteration to his defence. He hopes the consequences will be minimal.

"Obviously, he will be a loss, and when you are playing a team like Meath, he is the type of player that you would like to have in your squad, no doubt about that.

"But these are the sort of things you have to be ready for, and we would like to think we have a very strong bench and the sort of back-up that can substitute for that. All counties face those situations."

Kerry are one of the few counties that Meath have failed to beat in the championship under Sean Boylan's term as manager - stretching back to 1983. That record won't make ╙ SΘ complacent, though.

"We like to think that we do know our football in Kerry and we know what we are expecting against Meath. We know the green and gold is going to be pushed and pushed to the limits, and it will be a great win if Kerry can win this game. The feeling is that we have it all to do and we will have to be at the top of our game. And I'd say that is the feeling of Meath people as well."